Follow the crazy adventures of an Alabama cyclist taking on the Race Across America in 2015.

Samford University ACM Ride

Fun ride today with students Greg, John, Adam, and Jason from Samford and my friend Jamie Butler from church. Thanks to the Samford University ACM chapter for organizing the ride and inviting me to lead it! Here is the route we took – lots of climbing, but worth it for the views…The Samford University ACM ride – click for hi-res version

I went for a pretty intense ride ahead of time climbing Double Oak Ridge – one of the few Cat 3 climbs in the area for the Strava competition. I thought I had set a new record on the climb based on how hard I was going, but after downloading the ride data it turns out I was 22 seconds off my previous best even though my heartrate average was almost 5 bpm higher … learned a lesson about climbing – slow and steady at the start is better even if you don’t blow up before the top because you might still not be able to push it as hard as you otherwise would have been able to … and on a long climb that can add up to some pretty serious time!The complete ride 60 miles and almost 6000′ climbing – click for hi-res